Not so long ago, Thailand could boast about having one of the fastest growth rates in the world. But political turbulence, protests and a couple of coups have taken their toll. And there's anxiety about what will happen when the beloved king dies. How might the new Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community help Thailand get its act back together? What risks does Thailand's volatility have for a nascent regional grouping, with big aspirations to counterbalance China?

Around the world, Aung San Suu Kyi is seen as the symbol of the fight for freedom in Myanmar. But inside the country, she shares the spotlight with her father, who won independence from Britain but was felled by an assassin.

When Ponnipa Chanpeng was 22, she turned to dealing drugs to support her family. Seventeen years later, she's still in prison for her crimes. But a vocational training program for female prisoners is giving her hope for the future.

Updated

03/10/2015 - 7:45am

The Catholic Church urges ‘natural family planning’ and says it has 98 percent effectiveness. A medical expert says it is closer to 80 percent — and that is in societies where a woman is able to say no to a partner's demands for sex.

Under pressure by the US government and American evangelicals, the Thai government has stepped up raids to rescue sex trafficking victims. The trouble is, many of the "rescued" sex workers may not have been trafficked in the first place.

Thousands of men from Myanmar and other southeast Asian countries are being used as slaves to catch fish that may end up on American dinner tables. The Associated Press uncovered the story and followed the distribution trail to the United States.

Cambodian director Rithy Panh will be in Los Angeles for the Oscars on Sunday. His film, "The Missing Picture," is the first film from Cambodia ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. It's Rithy Panh's own personal memories of spending four years of his childhood living in a labor camp under the Khmer Rouge, watching as almost every member of his family died.

Some Republicans are so incensed about President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration that they're calling it illegal. It's easy to find similar disagreement over the use of presidential powers in other political systems around the world.

Reporter Phillip Martin has been investigating human trafficking in various parts of the world and in Vietnam he found a glimmer of hope, as a young woman who was kidnapped and sold to a brothel in China, returns to her family.

The crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 on July 17 has forced Malaysia Airlines to find a new — safer — route to its destinations in western Europe. The airline tried a few options and seems to have found a less controversial flight path.